ESS: Canandaigua: Victory and sorrow for Dumigan family

The thrill of ESS victory at Canandaigua for Brian Dumigan turns into family
sorrow.
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. -- It was to be a night of celebration at the
Canandaigua Speedway for Liverpool, N.Y.'s Brian Dumigan, the budding
star on the Empire Super...

The thrill of ESS victory at Canandaigua for Brian Dumigan turns into family
sorrow.

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. -- It was to be a night of celebration at the
Canandaigua Speedway for Liverpool, N.Y.'s Brian Dumigan, the budding
star on the Empire Super Sprints (ESS) circuit. Blasting by both
seven-time ESS champion Mike Woodring and many-time A-Main victor Dan
Kaszubinski to collect his first ever A-Main victory with the 19 year old
organization.

Shortly after receiving a nice ovation from the large crowd in victory
lane, Brian's father, David, collapsed in the pit area. After a long
stretch of time trying to revive Dumigan he would never regain
consciousness and David Dumigan, 57, passed away. Everyone in the ESS
family would like to give out our heart felt condolences to Brian and his
entire family.

The first full point show of the ESS Tour 2002 saw Mike Woodring pull
the pole position for the 20 lap Valvoline Cup A-Main. The "Land of
Legends" has been one of Woodring's favorite tracks over the years so
you could lay just about even odds on the Eden, N.Y. driver to come away
with the victory. At the drop of Dave Farney's green flag, the Putnam
County Speedway #19 took off into the lead looking for career win #52.

While Woodring's familiar black #19 was looking to get comfortable out
front in what turned into an unruly Canandaigua surface, fifth place
starting Kaszubinski and seventh place starting Dumigan were just chewing
up their competition. On lap two the charging duo was up to third and
fourth, lap three saw Kaszubinski in second and on lap four Dumigan moved
his mount into third to start up the chase.

It was a tale of two lines, Woodring using the extreme outside cushion
which was the smoothest part of the speedway while Kaszubinski and
Dumigan were testing their machines through the very rough low side. It
was a site many ESS fans have never seen, Woodring was getting chased
down and on lap five Kaszubinski swept by to take over the top spot.
Just one tour later, Dumigan passed Woodring and now his quest was
Kaszubinski's Autotech of Syracuse backed #20.

It was a great two car duel and with eight laps in the books,
Dumigan's Henchcraft built sprinter dove under Kaszubinski to take the
lead. Just mere seconds after the swapping of positions, Kaszubinski's
front end gave way to the track conditions and his car turned into the
inside turn four wall.

The lap eight restart saw Woodring's sprinter right on the tail of
Dumigan but on this night the challenger had all the weapons against the
champion. The final twelve laps went non-stop and Brian Dumigan pulled
away in total domination. "We changed just two small things on the car
after the heat, we were alright but we needed to get just a little
better." noted Dumigan. "We set up the car to go through all the dips
and holes, I felt it was the fastest way to get around but you are taking
a chance with your equipment."

Dumigan's, as well as Kaszubinski's, strategy proved right as
Woodring's line started to go away as the laps clicked on. It worked
for Dumigan but the roll of the dice didn't pan out for Kaszubinski.
"It was rough, I think I had all four tires off the ground a few times
but to beat Mike you have to do some wild things." said the 26 year old
driver who finished 19th in ESS points last season. "It was a battle
but this is just amazing to win with ESS. Coming in running basically
our second year you would never think you can win against these guys but
tonight it all worked out."

"I just have to thank the crew; they are the ones that get the
credit. We bought a new car this year and it was fast right out of the
box. These guys (crew) just give me a great set up, it's definitely
more car than driver." said a modest Dumigan. "We set up to do the
whole ESS tour this year, we don't have a lot of money or equipment but
we wanted to give it a shot and so far it's working out. We just will
take it one race at a time."

At the checkered flag, Dumigan amidst heavy lapped traffic, took the
win several car lengths ahead of Woodring. The second place finish for
the defending ESS title holder did net him the Bully Hill Nationals Dash
Qualifier as Dumigan already received one in a race earlier in the
season. Taking third in a fine effort was teenage second generation
driver Jeff VanDusen, fourth in a headline making run as well was 21 year
old female driver Erin Crocker with her Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
sponsored #16. Rounding out the top five and looking to repeat his top
five placing in the final points from 2001 was Bill Coffey.

The next five were Rob Dietrick, who lives just a few miles from the
Ontario County Fairgrounds, Quebec's Alain Bergeron, Steve Dow, the VSM
Abrasives #6 of Ryan Coniam who came back from a wild flip in his heat to
win the B-Main with his back up car. Tenth was another comeback story as
John Karklin Jr. also rolled his sprinter in the heats and he too came
back through the B-Main. The tenth place finish earned him the Walt's
Hobby Hard Charger bonus.

Despite difficult track conditions, only one caution and one red slowed
the pace of the twenty lap A-Main. On lap three, 2001 rookie of the year
Kyle Drum flipped his #47 over once and on lap eight was the caution for
the disabled Kaszubinski.

Taking the Brodix Cylinder Heads heat events were Drum, Dow and Coffey
with the KSE Racing Products B-Main going to Coniam. The Speedway
Performance/Walt's Hobby Dash Series event was postponed due to weather
and curfew. The event will be run on July 6th when ESS returns to
Canandaigua.

ESS NOTES: A strong field of 33 sprinters came out to do battle for
the first full point show of the season--Making his first ever ESS start
were Jason Blum and Curt Shuttleworth both young drivers just missed
transferring into the A-Main--Also joining the "upside down club" with
Drum, Coniam and Karklin was Gary Troutman in heat three--The rough early
season for Mike Stelter continues. Motor problems during warm-ups forced
Mike to pick up a ride with the Barnard family #78. During the B-Main a
broken suspension piece forced the Ontario, N.Y. driver to be a DNQ--With
bonuses from The Valvoline Cup, Car-Mate Trailers, Vicomp Graphics, ATL
Fuel Cells, Pro Shocks, Extreme Racewear, American Racer and Goodyear
Tires, Saldana Racing Products, Hank's Performance Products, Bicknell
Racing Products, Total Seal, Hazlitt Vineyards, Red's Speed Shop,
Behrent's Performance Warehouse/Mechanix Wear, MRE Productions and
Flag2flag.com, the victory for Dumigan was worth $2195--After a weekend
off, the ESS Tour 2002 goes full bore on Memorial Day weekend with three
events. Friday night it's the return to the Brewerton Speedway for the
first time since 1993 and then it's off to the Stateline and Eriez
Speedways.